NEWS revision 170256
1 2 NEWS about less 3 4====================================================================== 5 6 For the latest news about less, see the "less" Web page: 7 http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less 8 You can also download the latest version of less from there. 9 10 To report bugs, suggestions or comments, send email to 11 bug-less@gnu.org or markn@greenwoodsoftware.com. 12 13====================================================================== 14 15 16 Major changes between "less" versions 394 and 403 17 18* Allow decimal point in number for % (percent) command. 19 20* Allow decimal point in number for -j option (fraction of screen height). 21 22* Make n command fetch previous pattern from history file on first search. 23 24* Don't rewrite history file if it has not changed. 25 26* Don't move to bottom of screen on first page. 27 28* Don't output extraneous newlines, so copy & pasting lines from the 29 output works better. 30 31* The -c option has been made identical with the -C option. 32 33* Allow "/dev/null" as synomym for "-" in LESSHISTFILE to indicate 34 that no history file should be used. 35 36* Search can now find text which follows a null byte, if the PCRE 37 library is used, or if no-regex searching (ctrl-R) is used. 38 39* Better compatibility with POSIX more specification. 40 41* Make -f work for directories. 42 43* Make "t" cmd traverse tags in the correct order. 44 45* Allow a few binary characters in the input file before warning 46 that the file is binary. 47 48* Don't warn that file is binary if it merely contains ANSI color sequences 49 and -R is in effect. 50 51* Update Unicode character tables. 52 53* Support DESTDIR in Makefile. 54 55* Fix bug when filename contains certain shell metacharacters such as "$". 56 57* Fix bug when resizing the window while waiting for input from a pipe. 58 59* Fix configure bugs. 60 61====================================================================== 62 63 Major changes between "less" versions 382 and 394 64 65* Add history file to save search and shell command history between 66 invocations of less. 67 68* Improve behavior of history list for search and shell commands. 69 70* Add -K (or --quit-on-intr) option to make less exit immediately on ctrl-C. 71 72* Improve handling of UTF-8 files and commands, including better 73 line wrapping and handling double-width chars. 74 75* Added LESSUTFBINFMT environment variable to control display of 76 non-printable characters in a UTF-8 file. 77 78* Add --with-secure option to configure, to make it easier to 79 build a secure version of less. 80 81* Show search matches in the status column even if search highlights 82 are disabled via the -G option or the ESC-u command. 83 84* Improve performance when the file contains very long lines. 85 86* Add "windows" charset. 87 88* Add man page for lessecho. 89 90* Add support for erase2 character, treated same as erase. 91 92* Use ASCII lowercase/uppercase logic when operating on the command line. 93 94* Update makefile for Borland C++ 5.5.1. 95 96* Fix bug in calculating number of pages for %D prompt. 97 98* Fix bug in handling tag file error. 99 100* Fix obscure bug if input file is deleted while viewing help. 101 102* Fix bug handling filenames which include square brackets. 103 104* Fix possible buffer overflow in "global" tag search. 105 106* Fix possible buffer overflow in usage of LESSOPEN and LESSCLOSE. 107 108* Fix buffer overflow in reverse search. 109 110====================================================================== 111 112 Major changes between "less" versions 381 and 382 113 114* Removed some old copyrighted code. 115 This probably breaks OS/9 support. 116 117====================================================================== 118 119 Major changes between "less" versions 378 and 381 120 121* New -L option to disable LESSOPEN processing. 122 123* Further support for large (64 bit) file addressing. 124 Large file support is now set up by the configure script. 125 126* Use autoconf 2.54. 127 Replace configure.in, acconfig.h, defines.h.top with configure.ac. 128 129* Overstriking underscore with underscore is now bold or underlined 130 depending on context. 131 132* Use only 7 spaces for line numbers in -N mode, if possible. 133 134* Fix some bugs in handling overstriking in UTF-8 files. 135 136* Fix some nroff issues in the man page. 137 138====================================================================== 139 140 Major changes between "less" versions 376 and 378 141 142* Bug fixes: 143 Default buffer space is now 64K as documented. 144 Search highlighting works properly when used with -R. 145 Windows version works properly when input file contains carriage returns. 146 Clean up some compiler warnings. 147 148====================================================================== 149 150 Major changes between "less" versions 358 and 376 151 152* -x option can now specify multiple variable-width tab stops. 153 154* -X option no longer disables keypad initialization. 155 New option --no-keypad disables keypad initialization. 156 157* New commands t and T step through multiple tag matches. 158 Added support for "global(1)" tags 159 (see http://www.gnu.org/software/global/global.html). 160 161* New prompt style set by option -Pw defines the message printed 162 while waiting for data in the F command. 163 164* System-wide lesskey file now defaults to sysless in etc directory 165 instead of .sysless in bin directory. 166 Use "configure --sysconfdir=..." to change it. 167 (For backwards compatibility, .sysless in bin is still recognized.) 168 169* Pressing RightArrow or LeftArrow while entering a number now shifts 170 the display N columns rather than editing the number itself. 171 172* Status column (enabled with -J) now shows search results. 173 174* Windows version sets window title. 175 176* Default LESSCHARSET for MS-DOS versions is now "dos". 177 178* Searching works better with ANSI (SGR) escape sequences. 179 ANSI color escape sequences are now supported in the MS-DOS (DJGPP) version. 180 181* Improved performance in reading very large pipes. 182 183* Eliminated some dependencies on file offets being 32 bits. 184 185* Fixed problems when viewing files with very long lines. 186 187* Fixed overstriking in UTF-8 mode, and overstriking tabs. 188 189* Improved horizontal shifting of text using -R option with ANSI color. 190 191* Improved handling of filenames containing shell metacharacters. 192 193* Some fixes for EBCDIC systems. 194 195* Some fixes for OS/2 systems. 196 197====================================================================== 198 199 Major changes between "less" versions 354 and 358 200 201* Add -J (--status-column) option to display a status column. 202 203* Add -# (--shift) option to set default horizontal shift distance. 204 Default horizontal shift distance is now one-half screen width. 205 206* Horizontal shifting does not shift line numbers if -N is in effect. 207 208* Horizontal shifting acts as though -S were set, to avoid confusion. 209 210====================================================================== 211 212 213 Major changes between "less" versions 352 and 354 214 215* Allow space after numeric-valued command line options. 216 217* Fix problem with configuring terminal libraries on some systems. 218 219* Add support for PCRE regular expression library. 220 221* Add --with-regex option to configure to allow manually selecting 222 a regular expression library. 223 224* Fix bug compiling with SECURE = 1. 225 226====================================================================== 227 228 229 Major changes between "less" versions 346 and 352 230 231* Enable UTF-8 if "UTF-8" appears in locale-related environment variables. 232 233* Add --with-editor option to configure script. 234 235* The -M prompt and = message now show the top and bottom line number. 236 237* Fix bug in running the editor on a file whose name contains quotes, etc. 238 239* Fix bug in horizontal scrolling of long lines. 240 241* Fix bug in doing :d on a file which contains marks. 242 243* Fix bug causing cleared lines to sometimes be filled with standout, 244 bold, underline, etc. on certain terminals. 245 246* Fixes for MS-DOS (DJGPP) version. 247 248====================================================================== 249 250 251 Major changes between "less" versions 340 and 346 252 253* The UTF-8 character set is now supported. 254 255* The default character set is now latin1 rather than ascii. 256 257* New option -R (--RAW-CONTROL-CHARS) is like -r but handles 258 long (wrapped) lines correctly, as long as the input contains only 259 normal text and ANSI color escape sequences. 260 261* New option -F (--quit-if-one-screen) quits if the text fits on 262 the first screen. 263 264* The -w option now highlights the target line of a g or p command. 265 266* A system-wide lesskey file is supported (LESSKEY_SYSTEM). 267 268* New escape for prompt strings: %c is replaced by column number. 269 270* New escape for prompt strings: %P is replaced by percentage into 271 file, based on line number rather than byte offset. 272 273* HOME and END keys now jump to beginning of file or end of file. 274 275====================================================================== 276 277 278 Major changes between "less" versions 337 and 340 279 280* Command line options for less may now be given in either the old 281 single-letter form, or a new long name form (--option-name). 282 See the less man page or "less --help" for the list of long option names. 283 284* Command line options for lesskey may now be given in a new long name 285 form. See the lesskey man page for the list of long option names. 286 287* New command -- toggles an option using the long option name. 288 289* New command __ queries an option using the long option name. 290 291* The old -- command is renamed as -!. 292 293* If a ^P is entered between the dash and the option letter of the - 294 command, the message describing the new setting is suppressed. 295 296* Lesskey files may now contain \k escape sequences to represent the 297 "special" keys (arrows, PAGE-UP/PAGE-DOWN, HOME, END, INSERT, DELETE). 298 299* New command :d removes the current file from the list of files. 300 301* New option -~ (like -w before version 335) 302 suppresses tildes after end-of-file. 303 304* Less is now released under the GNU General Public License. 305 306====================================================================== 307 308 309 Major changes between "less" versions 335 and 337 310 311* Fixed bugs in "make install". 312 313====================================================================== 314 315 316 Major changes between "less" versions 332 and 335 317 318* The old -w flag (suppress tildes after end-of-file) has been removed. 319 320* New -w flag highlights the first new line after a forward-screen. 321 322* New -W flag highlights the first new line after any forward movement. 323 324* Window resize works even if LINES and/or COLUMNS environment 325 variables are incorrect. 326 327* New percent escapes for prompt strings: 328 %d is replaced by the page number, and 329 %D is replaced by the number of pages in the file. 330 331* Added charsets "iso8859" and "ebcdic". 332 333* In Windows version, uses HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH if HOME is not defined. 334 335* Fixed some bugs causing incorrect display on DOS/Windows. 336 337====================================================================== 338 339 340 Major changes between "less" versions 330 and 332 341 342* Filenames from the command line are entered into the command history, 343 so UPARROW/DOWNARROW can be used to retrieve them from the :e command. 344 345* Now works correctly on Windows when using a scrolling terminal 346 window (buffer larger than display window). 347 348* On Windows, now restores the console screen on exit. 349 Use -X to get the old behavior. 350 351* Fixed bug on Windows when CAPS-LOCK or NUM-LOCK is pressed. 352 353* Fixed bug on Windows when piping output of an interactive program. 354 355* Fixed bug in tags file processing when tags file has DOS-style 356 line terminators (CR/LF). 357 358* Fixed compilation problem on OS/2. 359 360====================================================================== 361 362 363 Major changes between "less" versions 321 and 330 364 365* Now supports filenames containing spaces (in double quotes). 366 New option -" can be used to change the quoting characters. 367 368* In filename completion, a slash is appended to a directory name. 369 If the environment variable LESSSEPARATOR is set, the value of 370 that variable, rather than a slash, is appended. 371 372* LeftArrow and RightArrow are same as ESC-[ and ESC-]. 373 374* Added commands ESC-( and ESC-), same as ESC-[ and ESC-]. 375 376* A "quit" command defined in a lesskey file may now have an "extra" 377 string, which is used to return an exit code from less when it quits. 378 379* New environment variables LESSMETACHARS and LESSMETAESCAPE provide 380 more control over how less interfaces to the shell. 381 382* Ported to Microsoft Visual C compiler for Windows. 383 384* Ported to DJGPP compiler for MS-DOS. 385 386* Bug fixes. 387 388====================================================================== 389 390 391 Major changes between "less" versions 291 and 321 392 393* Command line at bottom of screen now scrolls, so it can be longer 394 than the screen width. 395 396* New commands ESC-] and ESC-[ scroll the display horizontally. 397 398* New command ESC-SPACE scrolls forward a full screen, even if it 399 hits end-of-file. 400 401* Alternate modifiers for search commands: ^N is same as !, 402 ^F is same as @, and ^E is same as *. 403 404* New modifier for search commands: ^K means highlight the matches 405 currently on-screen, but don't move to the first match. 406 407* New modifier for search commands: ^R means don't use regular 408 expressions in the search. 409 410* Environment variable LESSKEY gives name of default lesskey file. 411 412* Environment variable LESSSECURE will force less to run in 413 "secure" mode. 414 415* Command line argument "--" signals that the rest of the arguments 416 are files (not option flags). 417 418* Help file (less.hlp) is no longer installed. Help text is now 419 embedded in the less executable itself. 420 421* Added -Ph to change the prompt for the help text. 422 Added -Ps to change the default short prompt (same as plain -P). 423 424* Ported to the Borland C compiler for MS-DOS. 425 426* Ported to Windows 95 & Windows NT. 427 428* Ported to OS-9. 429 430* Ported to GNU Hurd. 431 432====================================================================== 433 434 435 Major changes between "less" versions 290 and 291 436 437* Less environment variables can be specified in lesskey files. 438 439* Fixed MS-DOS build. 440 441====================================================================== 442 443 444 Major changes between "less" versions 278 and 290 445 446* Accepts GNU-style options "--help" and "--version". 447 448* OS/2 version looks for less.ini in $HOME before $INIT and $PATH. 449 450* Bug fixes 451 452====================================================================== 453 454 455 Major changes between "less" versions 252 and 278 456 457* A LESSOPEN preprocessor may now pipe the converted file data to less, 458 rather than writing it to a temporary file. 459 460* Search pattern highlighting has been fixed. It now highlights 461 reliably, even if a string is split across two screen lines, 462 contains TABs, etc. 463 464* The -F flag (which suppress search highlighting) has been changed 465 to -G. A new flag, -g, changes search highlighting to highlight 466 only the string found by the last search command, instead of all 467 strings which match the last search command. 468 469* New flag -I acts like -i, but ignores case even if the search 470 pattern contains uppercase letters. 471 472* Less now checks for the environment variable VISUAL before EDITOR. 473 474* Ported to OS/2. 475 476====================================================================== 477 478 479 Major changes between "less" versions 237 and 252 480 481* Changes in line-editing keys: 482 The literal key is now ^V or ^A rather than \ (backslash). 483 Filename completion commands (TAB and ^L) are disabled 484 when typing a search pattern. 485 486* Line-editing command keys can be redefined using lesskey. 487 488* Lesskey with no input file defaults to $HOME/.lesskey 489 rather than standard input. 490 491* New option -V displays version number of less. 492 493* New option -V displays version number of lesskey. 494 495* Help file less.hlp is now installed by default in /usr/local/share 496 rather than /usr/local/lib. 497 498 499====================================================================== 500 501 502 Major changes between "less" versions 170 and 237 503 504* By popular demand, text which matches the current search pattern 505 is highlighted. New -F flag disables this feature. 506 507* Henry Spencer's regexp.c is now included, for systems which do not 508 have a regular expression library. 509 regexp.c is Copyright (c) 1986 by University of Toronto. 510 511* New line-editing keys, including command history (arrow keys) and 512 filename completion (TAB). 513 514* Input preprocessor allows modification of input files (e.g. uncompress) 515 via LESSOPEN/LESSCLOSE environment variables. 516 517* New -X flag disables sending termcap "ti" and "te" (initialize and 518 deinitialize) strings to the terminal. 519 520* Changing -i from within less now correctly affects a subsequent 521 repeated search. 522 523* Searching for underlined or overstruck text now works when the -u 524 flag is in effect, rather than the -i flag. 525 526* Use setlocale (LANG and LC_CTYPE environment variables) to determine 527 the character set if LESSCHARSET/LESSCHARDEF are not set. 528 529* The default format for displaying binary characters is now standout 530 (reverse video) rather than blinking. This can still be changed by 531 setting the LESSBINFMT environment variable. 532 533* Use autoconf installation technology. 534 535* Ported to MS-DOS. 536 537 ******************************** 538 Things that may surprise you 539 ******************************** 540 541* When you enter text at the bottom of the screen (search string, 542 filename, etc.), some keys act different than previously. 543 Specifically, \ (backslash), ESC, TAB, BACKTAB, and control-L 544 now have line editing functions. 545 546* Some previous unofficial versions of less were able to display 547 compressed files. The new LESSOPEN/LESSCLOSE feature now provides 548 this functionality in a different way. 549 550* Some previous unofficial versions of less provided a -Z flag to 551 set the number of lines of text to retain between full screen scrolls. 552 The -z-n flag (that is, -z with a negative number) provides this 553 functionality. 554 555 556====================================================================== 557 558 559 Major changes between "less" versions 123 and 170 560 561* New option -j allows target lines to be positioned anywhere on screen. 562 563* New option -S truncates displayed line at the screen width, 564 rather than wrapping onto the next line. 565 566* New option -y limits amount of forward scroll. 567 568* New option -T specifies a "tags" file. 569 570* Non-printable, non-control characters are displayed in octal. 571 Such characters, as well as control characters, are displayed 572 in blinking mode. 573 574* New command -+ sets an option to its default. 575* New command -- sets an option to the opposite of its default. 576 577* Lesskey file may have a string appended to a key's action, 578 which acts as though typed in after the command. 579 580* New commands ESC-^F and ESC-^B match arbitrary types of brackets. 581 582* New command F monitors a growing file (like "tail -f"). 583 584* New command | pipes a section of the input file into a shell command. 585 586* New command :x directly jumps to a file in the command line list. 587 588* Search commands have been enhanced and reorganized: 589 n Repeat search, same direction. 590 N Repeat search, opposite direction. 591 ESC-/ Search forward thru file boundaries 592 ESC-? Search backward thru file boundaries 593 ESC-n Repeat search thru file boundaries, same direction. 594 ESC-N Repeat search thru file boundaries, opposite direction. 595 Special character * causes search to search thru file boundaries. 596 Special character @ causes search to begin at start/end of file list. 597 598* Examining a new file adds it to the command line list. 599 A list of files, or an expression which matches more than one file, 600 may be examined; all of them are added to the command line list. 601 602* Environment variables LESSCHARSET and LESSCHARDEF can define 603 a non-ASCII character set. 604 605* Partial support for MSDOS, including options -R for repainting screen 606 on quit, -v/-V to select video mode, and -W to change window size. 607 608 609====================================================================== 610 611 612 Major changes between "less" versions 97 and 123 613 614* New option (-N) causes line numbers to be displayed in the 615 text of the file (like vi "set nu"). 616 617* New option (-?) prints help message immediately. 618 619* New option (-r) displays "raw" control characters, without 620 mapping them to ^X notation. 621 622* New option (-f) forces less to open non-regular files 623 (directories, etc). 624 625* New option (-k) can be used to specify lesskey files by name. 626 627* New option (-y) can be used to set a forward scroll limit 628 (like -h sets a backward scroll limit). 629 630* File marks (set by the m command) are now preserved when a new 631 file is edited. The ' command can thus be used to switch files. 632 633* New command ESC-/ searches all files (on the command line) 634 for a pattern. 635 636* New command ESC-n repeats previous search, spanning files. 637 638* The N command has been changed to repeat the previous search 639 in the reverse direction. The old N command is still available 640 via :n. 641 642* New command ESC-N repeats previous search in the reverse 643 direction and spanning files. 644 645* 8 bit characters are now supported. A new option (-g) can be 646 used to strip off the eighth bit (the previous behavior). 647 648* Options which take a following string (like -t) may now 649 optionally have a space between the option letter and the string. 650 651* Six new commands { } ( ) [ and ] can be used to match 652 brackets of specific types, similar to vi % command. 653 654* New commands z and w move forward/backward one window and 655 simultaneously set the window size. 656 657* Prompt string expansion now has %L for line number of the last 658 line in the file, and %E for the name of the editor. 659 Also, % escapes which refer to a line (b=bottom, t=top, etc.) 660 can use j for the jump target line. 661 662* New environment variable LESSEDIT can be used to tailor the 663 command string passed to the editor by the v command. 664 665* Examining a file which was previously examined will return 666 to the same position in the file. 667 668* A "%" is expanded to the current filename and a "#" to the 669 previous filename, in both shell commands and the E command. 670 (Previously % worked only in shell commands and # worked 671 only in the E command.) 672 673* New command ":ta" is equivalent to "-t". 674 675* New command "s" is equivalent to "-l". 676 677* The - command may be followed by "+X" to revert to the default 678 for option X, or "-X" to get the opposite of the default. 679 680* Lesskey files may now include characters after the action as 681 extra input to be parsed after the action; for example: 682 "toggle-option X" to toggle a specific option X. 683 684 685 686